Safe for Kylo

When you search up the definition of home it would probably say something like “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household”. But I don’t think that’s what it means. I think of home as a safe space, a place where you're loved everyday and cared for. There was a boy named Kylo. He lost his parents in a car accident when he was six and has been living on the streets ever since. He has no friends, no family and no home. During the cold winter months, Kylo goes to the dumpster, grabs cardboard boxes and plastic bags and makes something that looks like a cardboard hut. Then he builds two snowmen that represent his Mom and Dad. Kylo spends most mornings watching the school kids through the windows. In the afternoons, he picks up cans and plastic bottles to trade them in for a couple of dollars to buy a small loaf of bread and goes back to his hut. Usually when he comes back to his hut it’s destroyed. But he doesn't mind; he just quietly rebuilds it and goes to bed. Even when the temperature is freezing, Kylo still continues his routine like normal. One day as he was peering through the window, the teacher noticed him and stepped outside. “Where are your parents?” she asked. “Dead,” he replied. After Kylo told his story, she brought him to the police station and he was placed in an adoption center. Over the next couple months Kylo was lived in four different foster homes. Eventually, a kind couple came and adopted Kylo. When he got to their house he felt safe and Kylo finally understood what it means to have a home.